the house desk

Cost of selling a house calculator

Every cost of a sale on its own line, starting from published figures you can replace with your own quotes, and three answers: the costs, the net proceeds, and what is left after the mortgage.

On this page
  1. The calculator
  2. Costs, net proceeds and equity
  3. Where the starting figures come from
  4. Selling costs at three prices
  5. How the route changes the total
  6. What it leaves out
  7. Questions people ask

The short answer

Selling a house in the UK costs the agent's fee, conveyancing, Land Registry and identity checks, an EPC if you have none, removals and any mortgage early repayment charge. The cost of selling a house calculator below puts each on its own line, starting from a published figure you can replace with your own quote.13

Work out what your sale will cost

Put in your own expected sale price and the quotes you have.

Estate agent fee
Conveyancing
Mortgage
Everything else

Your selling costs

Enter your expected sale price to see the total.

Worked example, using the defaults above and an illustrative price of £250,000

Worked example of selling costs
CostAmountBasis
Estate agent fee£3,250Including VAT as quoted
Conveyancing fee£1,316.52Including VAT as quoted
Disbursements£34Passed on at cost
Energy Performance Certificate£120
Removals£867
Total£5,587.522.24 per cent of the illustrative price

The price is illustrative, there so the arithmetic can be checked.

How do you calculate the cost of selling a house?

Add up every line for the cost of selling, and take that from the price for the net proceeds. Then take off the mortgage and any early repayment charge to see what reaches your account. That third figure is the one to plan your next move on.

  1. 01 The cost of selling Every line added up, and the share of the price it takes: £5,587.52, or 2.24 per cent, on a £250,000 sale at the starting figures.
  2. 02 Net proceeds The price less those costs: £244,412.48 in the same example.
  3. 03 What is left after the mortgage Net proceeds less the mortgage balance and any charge for repaying it early. This is the money that actually reaches your account on completion.
An illustrative price with no mortgage, worked by the same function as the calculator. Not an average or a valuation.

Take the mortgage balance from a redemption statement from your lender rather than from memory, and the early repayment charge from your mortgage offer, where the lender must state the most it can be.8

Run the calculator again whenever an offer changes, with your own quotes in place of the starting figures. The agent’s fee falls a little with the price, but the other lines stay put, so each pound off the price comes almost wholly out of what you keep.

Haroon Ali Author, The House Desk. Over 11 years in property and renovation

Where the starting figures come from

Each starting figure comes from a published source, so the example can be checked, and none is an estimate of what your home is worth. Rightmove supplies the agent's fee and Property Solvers the conveyancing. HM Land Registry, HomeOwners Alliance and Reallymoving supply the rest, line by line in the table.

The calculator's starting figures, each replaceable, with who published it
LineStarts atWhere it comes from
Estate agent1.3% with VATRightmove's figure for 2025.1 HomeOwners Alliance publishes 1.42 per cent for 2026.2
Conveyancing£1,316.52Property Solvers' average of 100 firms' quotes for a freehold sale under £300,000, with VAT, without disbursements.3 What goes into that bill is in solicitor fees when selling.
Disbursements£34Two Land Registry official copies at £7 each5 and £20 for identity checks, the top of the HomeOwners Alliance range.4
EPC£120The top of Reallymoving's range. It gives no sample or date.6
Removals£867The three-bedroom average, November 2025.7
Mortgage charges£0Specific to your mortgage. There is no average worth using.

HomeOwners Alliance, Reallymoving and Property Solvers each earn from the services they publish prices for, whether introductions to conveyancers and removers or buying houses. The figures are used because nobody without that interest publishes better ones. Why each was chosen over the alternatives is argued line by line in the cost of selling a house.

What share of the price do selling costs take?

Selling costs take 2.86 per cent of a £150,000 sale and 1.88 per cent of a £400,000 one, on The House Desk's run of the calculator's starting figures. Only the agent's fee moves with the price. Everything else comes to £2,337.52 whatever the home sells for.

Total selling costs on the calculator's starting figures, no mortgage charges. Illustrative prices, not averages
Sale priceAgent feeEverything elseTotalShare of price
£150,000 £1,950 £2,337.52 £4,287.52 2.86 per cent
£250,000 £3,250 £2,337.52 £5,587.52 2.24 per cent
£400,000 £5,200 £2,337.52 £7,537.52 1.88 per cent

Worked out by the same function as the calculator. To see the agent's fee alone at other rates, with and without VAT, use the estate agent fees calculator.

How the route changes the total

At auction the agent line becomes the auction house's charge to the seller, plus an entry fee. A house-buying company usually charges no agent fee, and its cost sits in the price instead. The calculator is built around an estate agent sale, so change those lines for the other two routes.

What to change in the calculator for the other two routes

At auction To a house-buying company
Agent line At auction: Set it to what the auction house charges the seller To a house-buying company: Usually nothing
Other costs10 At auction: Add the auction entry fee To a house-buying company: Some companies say they pay the legal fees. We Buy Any House describes all legal costs as covered
Where the cost sits At auction: In the seller’s fees To a house-buying company: In the price

What the four auctioneers we have profiled charge sellers, and what their buyers pay, is in auction fees for sellers. A company's discount does not show up as a line at all. The cash offer calculator puts it on a real sold price for your area.

What this calculator leaves out

The calculator covers selling only, and four costs sit outside it.

  • Buying your next home. Stamp Duty Land Tax, the conveyancing on your purchase and any survey are separate. HMRC's own Stamp Duty calculator works out the tax.
  • Leasehold charges. A flat's management pack typically costs £300 to £800, on HomeOwners Alliance's figures.4 Add it under other costs.
  • Capital Gains Tax. Not due on a home that was your only main home throughout, with none of it let or used only for business.11 Where it is due, the rates and the 60-day deadline are in the cost of selling a house.
  • Scotland's Home Report, which a seller there usually pays for before marketing.9 Add it under other costs.

Questions people ask about selling costs and this calculator

How much does selling a £250,000 house cost on these figures?

On the starting figures this calculator uses, each a published figure for its line, selling a £250,000 house costs £5,587.52 before any mortgage charges, 2.24 per cent of the price. The estate agent fee is the largest part and the only one that grows with the price. Your own quotes will differ, so replace each figure with yours.

What is the difference between net proceeds and equity?

Net proceeds are the sale price less the costs of selling. Equity, as the calculator shows it, is what is left after the mortgage is repaid as well. That is the money you actually take into your next home, before any tax.

Does it include the cost of buying my next home?

No. Buying costs, including Stamp Duty Land Tax, your own conveyancing on the purchase and any survey, are separate. HMRC runs its own Stamp Duty calculator, and the buying side is not something this site covers.

Why are there no mortgage charges in the starting figures?

Because they depend entirely on your own mortgage. An early repayment charge must appear in your mortgage offer, so the figure to enter is on that document or on a redemption statement from your lender.

Find the route that fits you

Three questions, about 30 seconds. Your answers stay in your browser.

Sources

(11)

Numbers in the text link to these. Each was read on the date shown. How we research

  1. How much are estate agent fees and how do they work? Rightmove. Company's own published information. UK. Read 14 September 2026.
  2. Estate Agent Fees, and how you can save HomeOwners Alliance. News report. UK. Read 14 September 2026.
  3. Conveyancing fees: the essential guide (2026) Property Solvers. Published survey or market data. England and Wales. Read 24 September 2026.
  4. Conveyancing fees: what to expect in 2026 HomeOwners Alliance. Published survey or market data. England and Wales. Read 24 September 2026.
  5. HM Land Registry: Information Services fees HM Land Registry, GOV.UK. Government guidance. England and Wales. Read 14 September 2026.
  6. Energy Performance Certificates: compare costs Reallymoving. Company's own published information. England and Wales. Read 14 September 2026.
  7. How much do removals cost? HomeOwners Alliance. Published survey or market data. UK. Read 14 September 2026.
  8. MCOB 12.3 Early repayment charges: regulated mortgage contracts Financial Conduct Authority Handbook. Regulator or enforcement body. UK. Read 14 September 2026.
  9. Home Report mygov.scot. Government guidance. Scotland. Read 14 September 2026.
  10. We Buy Any House homepage LXB Equity Limited, trading as webuyanyhouse.co.uk. Company's own published information. UK. Read 23 September 2026.
  11. Tax when you sell your home: Private Residence Relief GOV.UK. Government guidance. UK. Read 14 September 2026.